Euripides Cruz, missing 6 years, reunites with family after Southampton cop finds him

Euripides Cruz, 60, of Waterbury, Conn., who was reported missing in Connecticut in July of 2008, was reunited with his family after a Southampton Town police officer found him homeless, walking on Montauk Highway, police said Thursday, July 17, 2014. Photo Credit: Waterbury Police Dept.

Euripides Cruz, 60, of Waterbury, Conn., who was reported missing in Connecticut in July of 2008, was reunited with his family after a Southampton Town police officer found him homeless, walking on Montauk Highway, police said Thursday, July 17, 2014. (Credit: Waterbury Police Dept.)

WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT -- A mentally ill man reported missing in Connecticut six years ago is back home thanks to a Southampton Town police officer, who spotted the 60-year-old roaming the East End and used Web sleuthing to crack the case, relatives and authorities said Thursday.

The missing man, Euripides Cruz, was reunited with his family July 10 after Officer Sherakhan Parker spotted him...

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WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT -- A mentally ill man reported missing in Connecticut six years ago is back home thanks to a Southampton Town police officer, who spotted the 60-year-old roaming the East End and used Web sleuthing to crack the case, relatives and authorities said Thursday.

The missing man, Euripides Cruz, was reunited with his family July 10 after Officer Sherakhan Parker spotted him walking down Montauk Highway, bought him lunch and, acting "on a hunch," searched Cruz's name on the Internet, Southampton police said.

Efrain Cruz said he first learned Euripides was missing when he went to his Waterbury apartment in 2008, only to find he'd moved out. The family then filed a missing-person report with the Waterbury police. In the first few years Euripides was gone, his family knew he was in Brooklyn because they would occasionally get medical bills from Kings County Hospital Center, Efrain said.

When the bills stopped coming, Veronica said, they thought maybe Euripides had died.

"We think he was just homeless and just moving around on Long Island," she said.

Parker said he was glad to help Cruz return home to his family.

"I'm just thankful that . . . I was afforded the time and resources to assist human life in this instance and that I was blessed to be put in this position to facilitate this awesome reunion," Parker said. "This is an event that I will never forget."